Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Keir Leslie,
To be honest, I think this isn't a conversation we should be having now.
This is a conversation I've seen other Christchurch residents have on Twitter. I appreciate it absolutely could be distressing for some, but I know others are comforted by thoughts of a beautiful new Christchurch.
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I tweeted this yesterday - if Christchurch isn't rebuilt right, it could become the Hamilton of the South Island. That is, if the CBD is left to die and activity moves to the edges.
The trouble is, a lot of Christchurch's charm comes from its old buildings. But you can't build new old buildings. Any attempt to build ye olde Christchurch is going to look awful. So the trick is to find a 2011 style that melds with Christchurch's existing charms.
Napier is a fine example to look to - the devastated CBD was rebuilt in a sassy modern style. And I suspect there will be examples to follow (and lessons learned) from post-WWII Europe - with both ways of revitalising a devastated city, as well as what to do with ruined iconic buildings. Do you rebuilt the Cathedral spire to look as if the earthquake never happened, or do you make the rebuilt part look quite different, to never forget?
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Hard News: Some time last week, in reply to giovanni tiso,
And no, I'm not "really upset".
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that was a description of you.
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People left with heads full of ideas about what they could do, and what they could do better. In the wake of the massive challenge that reared up on Tuesday, that's still no bad thing.
Something concrete that's come directly from the enthusiasm of Webstock (and also Kiwi FOO) is the Christchurch Recovery Map project.
On Tuesday evening, it was just an idea. By Wednesday morning, it was a website. Using the Ushahidi open-source software (previously used in the Haiti earthquake, and to monitor Kenyan elections), the site maps user-sourced information from tweets, texts to a SMS shortcode (and try getting a shortcode set up in a day), and email. So it's information about where people can get water, medical supplies, food, what bridges are out, what ATMs are running.
I've been helping out monitoring the tweets and I'm amazed at the amount of talent and time that's being put into this project. Volunteers are putting in hours and hours, companies are donating resources, from webhosting to office space.
And the site is working. Even though some parts of Christchurch don't have electricity yet, people with internet access have been using it. A woman with diabetes used it to find a supplier of insulin.
It's hard work, but it's paying off.
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Hard News: Some time last week, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Which is more than Facebook ever did.
There are always going to be people who are genuinely distressed when a site changes its design, more due to the fact that it's changed, that it's different, not familiar, and they have to get to know it all over again.
Facebook is full of abandoned groups full of members vowing to boycott Facebook for the new designs of '07, '08, '09, '10 and '11, and then eventually forgetting what the old design even looked like.
These companies know they have to gradually introduce new designs - give people the option of playing with it, rather than forcing it upon users. But there are always going to be people who find any kind of change to be really upsetting.
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To further debunk the John Key/green screen conspiracy theory - another reason it's unlikely is that TVNZ's Christchurch studio was wrecked by the earthquake. It would be a million times easier for them to shoot the PM in the street than muck around with locating a green screen and getting it set up.
I'm sure if they had more time, they'd have been able to make the lighting look better, but in times like these, there are bigger priorities in television news reporting.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Lisa Black,
Blood supplies will likely be needed. Please do donate if you can.
The NZ Blood Service have posted this on their Facebook page:
News media is incorrectly reporting that the Blood Service needs donors now. This is not the case. If and when we need donors we will let you know through Facebook and our website. Please spread the word that this is the case and we'll let you guys know if the situation changes.
Mistruths spread quickly. For the sake of our pals in Christchurch, please verify any serious info before tweeting or posting.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Russell Brown,
Still haven’t heard from my friend in Brighton.
Let us know when you hear.
What a mess.
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What scares me - after the first quake, there were lots of "We're ok!" tweets from people. This time, the tweets are more "OMG", and there's also a distressing silence from others.
I really hope everyone is ok :-(
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Russell Brown,
It was also expected to recommend that women who had more children when they were already on a benefit be required to go back to work when the baby was 14 weeks old.
That 14 weeks has to be a bluff. I used to work with a woman who went back to work after 12 weeks. She was a hardcore workaholic and had the added bonus of her husband being able to work from home, and had plenty of local family at hand to help with (paid) childcare.
Not only that, but it was a very friendly office where it was quite all right for her to sit at her desk with a breast pump attached, squirting out milk while making phone calls and working at her computer.
It was something she wanted to do - and it worked well for her. But imagine how much harder it would be for someone with no partner, no local family and with a less sympathetic office.